1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements in a musical instrument drum. More particularly, the present drum improvements are for a drum that is changeable to alter the internal volume that changes or alters the sound from the drum. Even more specifically the improvement is for a snare drum.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Most drummers perform with a number of drums where each drum has a different tonal quality. Usually a drummer must purchase a number of fixed dimension drums to obtain the desired tonal quality from each individual drum. There have been several patents that have been issued that address interchangeability or modifications to a drum to change the sonic properties of a drum. Exemplary examples of patents covering these drums are disclosed herein.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,675,099 issued on Oct. 7, 1997 to Tullio Granatello and published application Number US 2006/0249005 that was published on Nov. 9, 2006 to Mark A. Rush disclose a drum where the bearing edge or the membrane support rings are changeable. Changing or altering these parts can have some minor effect on the sonic properties of the drum and changing these components is often desirable because of damage or harm from playing the drum. While the replacement of these parts may be desirable for maintenance or servicing of the drum, they provide limited ability to alter the tone of the drum.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,576 issued on Jan. 3, 1995 to John J. Good et al., discloses a drum constructed with metal and wood sections. The use of metal and wood section in this patent is made to impart a more desirable audible sound to the drum. While a more desirable sound may be achieved, the components can be installed in an omni-directional orientation where the addition of a snare attachment is not possible because the orientation of the shell components is not restricted to a specific location on the inner drum shell.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,437 issued on Nov. 17, 1981 to Fred D. Hinger et al., U.S. Pat. No. 1,420,233 issued on Jun. 20, 1922 to W. H. Baldwin et al., U.S. Pat. No. 673,633 issued on May 7, 1901 to E. Boulanger and U.S. Pat. No. 578,198 issued on Mar. 2, 1897 to E. Boulanger each disclose drums where the drum heads are movable on drum tension rods or the like. When the drum heads are moved apart an air gap is created between the hoops of the drum. While moving the drum heads apart as disclosed in these patents will change the sonic properties to the drum the enlarged air gap that is created creates a muffling effect on the sound. The performer is also limited to the wall sections and thicknesses of the initial drum and interchangeability is not possible.
What is needed is a universal arrangement of drum shell components where one central drum tube can be used to make the 39 commonly known snare drums. The proposed application provides a solution to this problem with keyed drum sections that are all interchangeable and stackable to alter the length, wall thickness, materials and tonal characteristics of the snare drum.